Photo credit:
Ralph Bellamy, 01/1977
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Mount Hope
Inventory No.:
PG:69-11
Other Name(s):
Gast House, Crestlawn
Date Listed:
11/29/1978
Location:
1 Cheverly Circle , Cheverly, Prince Georges County
Category:
Building
Period/Date of Construction:
c. 1839; 1860s; 1919
Architect/Builder:
Builder: Fielder Magruder, Jr.
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Description:
Mount Hope is a two-story, five-bay frame house built in two stages. The three-bay west half was built in the 1830s and the two-bay addition to the east in the 1860s. A one-story kitchen wing appears to date from the 1830s as well. There is some evidence that the building may stand partially on the foundations of a late-18th century house. The south facade has a central entrance flanked by four French doors with transoms above, installed in the 1920s. The doorway consists of a door with two glass panels, transom, and sidelights. In each of these openings is one light of thick, beveled glass, added c. 1920. On the second floor are five 6/6 sash windows, the western three of which being grouped slightly, making the "center" window left of true center. The one-story porch which extends across the entire front was added c. 1919-1922. The gable roof has a very shallow pitch and is covered with asphalt shingles. The west gable end has two exterior chimneys, while the east has two interior chimneys, also corbeled, but more square and slim in design. All are of stuccoed brick. Two small, four-light windows flank the southwest chimney on the first floor. The northwest chimney has a doorway to the north and a large square window containing one sheet of glass to the south. In the east end there is a 6/6 sash window to the north of the southeast chimney and an early 20th century small, horizontal stained-glass window with a "C" in the center to the south. The "C" stands for Crestlawn, the name given to the property in the early 20th century. There are no windows above the first story on the gable ends. The north facade has had several narrow one-story additions made to it, to provide bathrooms and a small kitchen. There are five windows on the second floor. The house is covered with clapboard for the most part, with aluminum siding on the east and some asphalt siding on the rear (north). The kitchen wing adjoins the house at the northeast half of the east gable end. It has two 6/6 sash windows on the south, a door on the east, and two windows on the north. A stone outbuilding, probably a dairy, stands just behind the house. It has walls two feet thick and is ventilated, and appears to date from the late 18th century.
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Significance:
Mount Hope is the focal point of the town of Cheverly, a suburb of Washington, D.C. founded in 1918. It is a frame farmhouse built c. 1839 and added to in the 1860s by Fielder Magruder, Jr., member of the prominent Magruder family who first settled in Maryland in 1652. Part of the house sits on the stone foundations of an earlier structure, and a possibly c. 1800 outbuilding also remains on the property. The town of Cheverly occupies much of the original 716-acre tobacco plantation of Fielder Magruder, Jr. The house is the town symbol, appearing on the official town seal and town flag. The house was renovated from 1919 to 1922, as the home and office of Robert Marshall, founder of Cheverly. He lived there until 1929. Cheverly's first mayor owned Mount Hope from 1941 to 1977.
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